Pair of large wildfires threaten to merge in Ariz.

Crews attempt to stop blazes from becoming single 50-mile-wide front

FOSTER KLUGAssociated Press Writer

Published Sunday, June 23, 2002

SHOW LOW, Ariz. -- Crews with bulldozers, shovels and chain saws rushed to reinforce firebreaks on Saturday in efforts to protect forest communities from two powerful, wind-driven wildfires that threatened to unite in a 50-mile-wide front.

The two blazes, just six miles apart, already had forced about 8,000 people to evacuate, and thousands more were warned to be ready to leave.

"When you see the flames reaching up into the sky it makes you feel very small," said Show Low resident Helen Gonzalez, who had packed important belongings into vans to be ready in case of an evacuation order. She has been taking her four children to a mountain every evening to check the fire's progress with binoculars.

The larger of the two fires had exploded across 150,000 acres -- more than 200 square miles -- since starting on Tuesday, and had forced up to 4,000 people to flee Pinedale, Clay Springs and Linden. About 100 people refused to leave.

At least 12 homes and 20 smaller structures were destroyed when the fire overran Pinedale, 125 miles northeast of Phoenix.

Fire crews used bulldozers and hand tools to broaden the firebreak between that blaze and Show Low and planned to set a backfire on the west side to remove fuel from the wildfire's path.

If the fire crosses that line, at Hop Canyon eight miles west of Show Low, the city of 7,700 and neighboring Pinetop-Lakeside, with 3,500 residents, would be evacuated. Another nearby community, Hon Dah, also was placed on alert.

The second fire, just six miles away, had burned more than 18,000 acres by Saturday and forced the evacuation of 4,000 people from Heber-Overgaard and Aripine. Crews bulldozed a fire line one mile south of the communities, said Susan Keys, a fire spokeswoman.

Wind had pushed that fire uphill and over the crest of the Mogollon Rim, a cliff that slashes across a wide area of the state, taking the flames onto fairly flat land six miles southwest of Heber-Overgaard.

"It was slower than we anticipated, which gave us some time to build a fire line," Keys said.

Lighter wind was forecast Saturday -- half of Friday's gusts, which reached 51 mph -- but authorities still expected the two wildfires to merge on Sunday, creating a 50-mile-wide front of flames in the bone-dry pine and juniper trees.

"We're short of resources, and we're in a race against time," fire spokesman Jim Paxon said.

"There's no doubt that we'll whip this fire," he said. "But it's going to take a lot of time, and it's going to gobble up a lot of country and put a lot of people at risk in the meantime."

The biggest of the two fires was thought to be manmade, although authorities didn't know whether it was an accident or arson. The second, smaller fire was started by a lost hiker signaling for help.

In hard-hit Colorado, stiff wind and high temperatures were forecast Saturday as crews battled three wildfires that had burned more than 220,000 acres.

Firefighters were able to extend containment lines around 60 percent of one fire that had burned 137,000 acres southwest of Denver, the largest in Colorado history.

Crews discovered more houses that had been destroyed by that fire, boosting the total to 114. About 420 other buildings also were destroyed. A blaze near Durango in southwestern Colorado had blackened 67,700 acres and destroyed 45 homes.

Four firefighters headed to that blaze from Oregon were killed when their van swerved out of control Friday on Interstate 70 near Parachute, 200 miles west of Denver. Seven people were injured. The deaths followed the crash earlier in the week of an air tanker that had been dropping flame retardant on a blaze in the Sierra Nevada. Three crewmen were killed when the plane's wings snapped off.

The Arizona infernos rattled nerves across a region known of normally tranquil mountains and mild weather in the White Mountains. The area of eastern Arizona draws hikers and campers and is a summer getaway for Phoenix-area residents escaping the desert heat.

Show Low resident Brian Bolton has been driving to work each day with his truck already packed with belongings, but said he tries not to think about the fire.

"It's the only healthy way to go about your day," he said, "prepare yourself but keep it in the back of your mind until something actually happens."